Nice article on the CAMLS.

[Bull-by-Marriage]

By Lindsay Peterson

Tampa Bay Online Tampa Bay Online

TAMPA — This time next year, doctors from around the world will be practicing surgical techniques on high-tech simulators in a University of South Florida complex in downtown Tampa.

The $30 million building is the beginning of a long-term downtown presence for USF, with the university's ownership of "an entire city block and all the potential that goes with that," said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, at a morning groundbreaking for the new project.

"One day the skyline will host the green and gold bull," Iorio said.

Project planning took six years, Iorio said, but Tampa and USF officials stuck with it because they had a common goal: "It wasn't going to Orlando."

It's called CAMLS, Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. In the beginning it was going to be near the USF Tampa campus. Then planners found property in Tampa Heights, in part of an effort to revitalize the neighborhood north of downtown.

When that fell through last year, USF agreed to pay the city of Tampa $3.5 million for the piece of land known as the HART lot, on South Franklin Street next to the Fort Brooke Garage.

Along the way the size and scope of the project grew, as did the price tag, from $25 million to $30 million.

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesThe 90,000-square-foot building, which will include 30,000 square feet of classroom space, will contain a virtual hospital with operating suites and emergency rooms, said Stephen Klasko, dean of the USF Medical College.

USF faculty will train surgeons from around the world to perform robotic, computer-assisted and image-guided surgeries. In the virtual hospital, doctors, nurses and other health care personnel will learn teamwork skills, something doctors aren't noted for, Klasko said.

While airline pilots, even everyday drivers, have to demonstrate their skills before getting licenses, Klasko said, "that's not the case in health care."

Because of robotics and other health care simulation technology, "we're about to change that.

"We're going to train surgeons so they know how to do hundreds of procedures (and) have the opportunity to practice the procedure before they do it on you."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41022407

[DELdaBull]

Big Things!!!!!

An Iconic U in the downtown skyline would be sweet.

[Guest nybullsfan]

How about on all 4 sides of a "clock-tower" kind of spire on the building? Lit up in alternate green and gold at night.

No need to worry about Suntrust on game day any more...

[SRQ]

two questions out of my ignorance:

1.  Is there a current demand for this technology or will the demand need to be 'created'?

2.  How many similar faciliites are there in the US/world?

[xguju]

1. There is a huge demand for this. The College of Medicine (COM) essentially went crazy at the sound of this huge undertaking because this essentially puts USF Health at the forefront of medical education. The use of advanced medical and surgical simulators prepares students in a way that was not available even 5 years ago. We will have multiple Da Vinci surgery robots, and we will have state of the art medical simulators for all specialties. Suffice it to say, this is the future of medical education.

2. I don't know the specifics but I believe this will be one of the few advanced training centers in the Southeast. The funny part is that Orlando did not have a chance, this was primarily a USF and Tampa General undertaking. Don't know why the Mayor said that.

All this being said, this is what I was told at the USF COM told me at Interviews and Second Look.